376 HUMMINGS IN THE AIR. 



middle of the day, perhaps from twelve o'clock till 

 two, on a few calm, sultry days in July, we occa- 

 sionally hear, when in particular places, the hum- 

 ming of apparently a large swarm of bees. It is 

 generally in some spacious open spot, that this 

 murmuring first arrests our attention. As we 

 move onward the sound becomes fainter, and by 

 degrees is no longer audible. That this sound 

 proceeds from a collection of bees, or some such 

 insects, high in the air, there can be no doubt ; yet 

 the musicians are invisible. At these times a soli- 

 tary insect or so may be observed here and there, 

 occupied in its usual employ, but this creature 

 takes no part in our aerial orchestra. We investi- 

 gators, who endeavour to find a reason and a cause 

 for all things, are a little puzzled sometimes in our 

 pursuits, like other people; and, perhaps, would 

 have but little success in attempting an elucidation 

 of this occurrence, which, with those circles in our 

 pastures and on our lawns, that produce such crops 

 of fungi (acjaricus oreades) , and are called by the 

 common name, for want of a better or more sig- 

 nificant one, of " fairy rings," we will leave as we 

 find them, an odium physiologicum. 



1827. The winds of this autumn have been 

 violent and distressing ; but of all variable things, 

 we know of none more so than our seasons and 

 temperatures, produced probably by causes and 

 combinations of which we have no comprehension, 

 or power of foreseeing, u for these things come not 

 by observation ; we cannot say, Lo here ! or Lo 



